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Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Bell, is pushing Assembly Bill 642 sponsored by AOL. Just when you thought that antique Internet service was obsolete it manages to get a gullible assemblyman to single-handedly subsidize AOL by allowing Internet-only “publications” to publish legal ads. AB 642 has been assigned to the Assembly Judiciary Committee. It ought to be [...]
Now beginning its 162nd year of publication, the Mountain Democrat is one of 19 newspapers published in El Dorado County before 1858, according to the 1949 reminiscences of former Democrat publisher Clarence Barker.
It is the lone survivor of that remarkable period, and is now the oldest newspaper in California in continuous publication.
By its own account, the earliest paper in the county was the El Dorado Republican, originally founded as the El Dorado News in June 1851. This date was mentioned in the early issues …
Journalists generally are somewhat on the shy side. Having a notebook and a pen gives us an excuse to talk to total strangers and ask them to tell their life’s story. I learned to take notes and quotes in Amador County when I was sent to downtown Jackson to accost people on the street and [...]
It was on this day in the year 1690 that the first multipage newspaper was published in the Americas. Alas, freedom of speech was something to be fought for, and “Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick” was shut down before its second edition. The Aquarius moon reminds us to participate in the privileges that make [...]
A couple of months ago a copy of the January issue of the Veterans of Foreign Wars magazine was dropped off at the newspaper. In it was a story titled, “Mexican War Vet Wages Deadliest Gun Fight in American History.” It is a story that seems a bit of a tall tale which probably bears [...]
Award-winning journalist Scott Thomas Anderson will be at the Placerville News Co. on Main Street on April 21 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. to talk about the relationship between meth addiction and crime in rural areas. Anderson will discuss the 18 months he spent as an embedded reporter with law enforcement agencies, including the El [...]
The Oct. 1, 1852, edition of the Sacramento “Daily Union” has, on page two, a short discussion on the Chinese in Sacramento, followed by an interesting comment on the E Clampus Vitus group. “THE CHINESE IN K STREET. – We have before noticed the fact that the Chinese had congregated to such an extent on [...]
On June 7, 1967 a memorial service was held at the Camino Community Church. The service was for Dennis Kramer, a 1966 graduate of El Dorado High School, killed in action while serving his country in the Vietnam War. It’s been 44 years since Dennis Kramer’s death. While fighting in Vietnam, Dennis corresponded back to [...]
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR TERMS OF USE have changed effective April 6, 2012. TERMS OF USE (Effective April 6, 2012) 1. INTRODUCTION AND ACCEPTANCE Welcome to MtDemocrat.com (“Website”), an interactive online service operated by McNaughton Newspapers, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“McNaughton”, “us”, “we”, or “our”). PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE [...]
It must have been a slow TV news day when KOVR Channel 13 reporter Neda Iranpour called Mountain Democrat Features Editor Mimi Escabar 3:45 p.m. Jan. 4 about coming up and doing a story about our newspaper starting its 160th year of publication. She called me about 4:45 just to be sure somebody would be [...]
Several years ago I published the Hebron Herald, a weekly newspaper located in northern Indiana. The newspaper employed a woman named Helen, who for many years penned a local column called “Looking through the Office Window.” Helen’s desk was situated in a way that gave her an optimal view of passersby and people became the [...]
Built in 1922-23 without steel reinforcement, the triple-arch Weber Dam continues to engender controversy. Monday the El Dorado Irrigation District Board of Directors gave El Dorado Hills developers 90 days to come up with a new deal about discounted water meters unused from when they paid to reinforce Weber Dam a decade ago. The 90-foot [...]
Leave it to our history columnist, Doug Noble, to drop off some interesting items for my perusal. His most recent find is the proposed Sierra crossing for the Sacramento Valley Railroad. It shows it going over Johnson Pass as the round-about way, but it also shows it going under Echo Summit through a tunnel. The [...]
“Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” — Mark Twain There’s a certain cordiality to the air in October. The long march of a stiflingly hot summer is finally over. The days cool off, dusk comes earlier. Mother Nature is changing fast as the trees begin to color and the first refreshing [...]
Democrat staff writer The old saying, ÒOne manÕs haunted house is another manÕs bargainÓ could never be more true than it is now for Tom Williams and Barbara Holmes, currently of Georgetown. The couple just ÒwonÓ the house in Sacramento whose notoriety in the late 1980s was guaranteed by the fact that as many as [...]
In the May 29, 1852, edition of the Sacramento “Daily Union,” there are two articles of interest, the first being the result of what appears to have been a duel between two men in the Stockton area, and the second has news about problems regarding the United States obtaining a right of way across Mexico, [...]
Special to the Democrat Not long after leaving the U.S. Navy in 1947, former Cmdr. Joseph E. Sheeks went back to visit his hometown of Valparaiso, Ind. When they sang the Star Spangled Banner on the 4th of July, he cried. Behind the tears, SheekÕs memories of real live fireworks, columns of smoke and mass [...]
“I have a request,” the caller pronounced when I answered the telephone. “Request?” I asked. That’s funny. I don’t recall my job title being that of disc jockey. Perhaps this guy dialed the wrong number. Maybe he thinks he called one of the local radio stations. “You published an article about my wife’s arrest in [...]
Democrat history columnist People sometimes ask if El Dorado County was the only place where people seemed to be hanged by vigilante committees. For a period of time in the early days of the Gold Rush, El Dorado County was the most populated area in California, so much of everything happened here. But there were [...]
Editor Wednesday we launched our Readers Panel with a group of six community members that I chose to represent a variety of views and sections of the county. The group will meet once a month for a year and we aim to keep each meeting to one hour. In the future weÕll make our selections [...]